Hundreds of budget-related suggestions have poured in from ShorelineCommunity College employees over the past week after college officials asked for ideas and input.

“There has really been a lot of involvement, really significant” Daryl Campbell, Vice President for Administrative Services, said of the suggestions that were submitted anonymously either online or in suggestion boxes.

The suggestion-gathering period is one of the final pieces to be in place before Campbell and the other vice presidents craft a plan that will trim between $1.5 million and $2 million from the college budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year that begins July 1.

“We are compiling and categorizing all the comments and we will read all of them before finalizing a plan,” Campbell said, adding that the e-mail and suggestion boxes will be available for the next several weeks. “We’ll continue to look at comments.”

With ultimate approval by SCC President Lee Lambert, that plan will come from Campbell, Vice President for Academic Affairs John Backes, Vice President for Student Success Tonya Drake and President for Human Resources and Employee Relations Stephen Smith. Also participating in the discussions are Holly Woodmansee, Special Assistant to the President for Budget and Internal Control and JimHills, Interim Special Assistant to the President for Communications, Marketing and Government Relations.

The goal is to announce the reduction plan at an all-campus meeting starting at 12:30 p.m., Friday, March 12. To reach that goal, however, much will have to happen, including finalizing the plan, discussions with both faculty and classified union representatives and private meetings between Lambert and those employees who could be affected by the reductions.

While the college will have an announced budget-reduction plan on March 12, that doesn’t mean it will be set in stone.

“There are a number of things that could change and impact the plan,” Campbell said. Those things include getting a specific budget-cut target from the State Board of Community and TechnicalColleges. That can’t happen until the Legislature passes a budget and the session end is scheduled for March 11. Potential federal funding or new state taxes may change the lawmakers’ equation. Personal choices by employees including retirements, resignations and those with position “bumping rights” can also change who is affected by the cuts.

Also, there will be an opportunity for those impacted by the cuts to speak again with President Lambert.

“A lot of thought and work will have been done by that point, but if there is a compelling reason, or perhaps we just got something wrong, of course we would want to revisit that,” Lambert said. “No one wants to do this, but we do want to do it the best way we can for our employees and students.”

Anticipating the likelihood of changes, there will be another all-campus meeting at 12:30 p.m., Friday, April 2, to update the campus on how reductions are being implemented and present any adjustments that are known at that point.